¹In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah started to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he did so for nine years. ²And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who were before him. ³Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant, and he brought him a gift. ⁴And the king of Assyria discovered a conspiracy by Hoshea, because he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and he had not brought a present up to the king of Assyria, as was the custom year by year, so the king of Assyria detained him and bound him in prison. ⁵Then the king of Assyria went up throughout all the land, and he went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. ⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported Israel to Assyria, and he relocated them in Halah and in Habor by the River Gozan and the cities of Media. ⁷And it came to pass that the sons of Israel sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt – from being under the control of Pharaoh king of Egypt – and they had feared other gods, ⁸and they had walked in the statutes of the nations which the Lord had dispossessed before the sons of Israel, and the statutes of the kings of Israel which they had instituted. ⁹And the sons of Israel did things secretly, things which were dishonest, against the Lord their God, and they built themselves idolatrous raised sites in all their cities, from the watchman's tower to the fortified city. ¹⁰And they set up idolatrous images and phallic parks on every high hill and under every luxuriant tree. ¹¹And they burned incense there on all the idolatrous raised sites, like the Gentiles, whom the Lord had driven into exile at their advance, and they did evil things, so that they provoked the Lord to anger. ¹²And they served idols concerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.” ¹³And the Lord testified to Israel and to Judah through the intermediacy of every prophet of his – every seer – and said, “Come back from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent you through the intermediacy of my servants the prophets.” ¹⁴But they did not heed it, but they stiffened their necks like the necks of their fathers who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵And they rejected his statutes and his covenant which he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them, and they went after idolatry, and they became idolatrous, and they went after the Gentiles who were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them not to act like them. ¹⁶And they forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God, and they made themselves cast imagery – two calves. And they made a phallic park, and they worshipped every celestial body, and they served Baal. ¹⁷And they made their sons and their daughters pass through fire, and they made divinations, and they used enchantment, and they gave themselves over to do evil in the sight of the Lord, so that they provoked him to anger. ¹⁸And the Lord became very irate with Israel, and he removed them from his presence. None remained except the tribe of Judah alone. ¹⁹But neither did Judah keep the commandments of the Lord their God, and they walked in the statutes of Israel which they had instituted. ²⁰And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and he afflicted them, and he delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until he had banished them from his presence. ²¹For he had torn Israel away from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king, and Jeroboam directed Israel away from following the Lord, and he caused them to commit a great sin. ²²And the sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he committed, and they did not depart from it, ²³to such an extent that the Lord removed Israel from his presence, as he had said through the intermediacy of all his servants the prophets, and Israel was deported from its land to Assyria, as it is up to this day. ²⁴And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Ava and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and he relocated them in the cities of Samaria instead of the sons of Israel, and they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. ²⁵And it came to pass, at the start of when they lived there, that they did not fear the Lord, and the Lord sent lions against them which would kill them. ²⁶Then they spoke to the king of Assyria and said, “The Gentiles whom you have deported and relocated in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the God of the land, and he has sent lions against them, and there they are killing them, because they do not know the custom of the God of the land.” ²⁷Then the king of Assyria gave a command and said, “Take one of the priests there, whom you deported from there, and let them go and live there, and let him teach them the custom of the God of the land.” ²⁸So one of the priests whom they had deported from Samaria came and stayed in Beth-El, and he would teach them how they should fear the Lord. ²⁹But each nation would make its own gods and place them in the house on the idolatrous raised sites which the Samaritans had made. Each nation would do this in their cities where they were living. ³⁰And the men from Babylon made Succoth-Benoth, and the men from Cuth made Nergal, and the men from Hamath made Ashima. ³¹And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their sons in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the god of the Sepharvaim. ³²But they feared the Lord, yet they made themselves priests of the idolatrous raised sites from their common people, and they officiated for them in the house on the idolatrous raised sites. ³³They feared the Lord, yet they served their own gods in the manner of the nations from where the Assyrians had deported them. ³⁴Up to this day they have been acting according to their original customs. They do not fear the Lord and they do not act according to their statutes and according to their customs, or according to the law, or according to the commandment which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob to whom he gave the name Israel. ³⁵For the Lord had made a covenant with them and commanded them and said, “You shall not fear other gods, and you shall not worship them, and you shall not serve them, and you shall not sacrifice to them, ³⁶but rather it is the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with an outstretched arm, whom you shall fear, and it is him whom you shall worship, and it is to him that you shall sacrifice. ³⁷And it is the statutes and the principles and the law and the body of commandments which he wrote for you which you shall keep by observing them every day, and you shall not fear other gods. ³⁸And you shall not forget the covenant which I made with you, and you shall not fear other gods, ³⁹but rather it is the Lord your God whom you shall fear, and he will deliver you from the grip of all your enemies.” ⁴⁰But they did not heed it, but rather acted according to their former customs. ⁴¹And these nations feared the Lord, but they served their carved images, as did both their sons and their grandsons. They acted as their fathers did, and do so up to this day.